Smokin' Hot

Chapter 17: Quit Playin' Games

Once I recovered I was able to reply “I could ask you the same question, Matt.”

Although it was pretty obvious what he was doing sitting on the bed facing the TV with an X-box controller in his hand.

He just raised the controller and nodded his head toward the TV “Red Dead Redemption”

“Hmm” I hummed in response, taking in Ben’s messy room.  That boy needs to learn the purpose of a laundry basket.

“What are you doing up here when there’s a party going on downstairs?” he asked, snapping my attention back to him.

“Cleaning up.  I needed a break from the crowd…”  I set the trash bag down “Wait, why are you here?”

“I got bored sitting home alone, I’m not much of a partier, plus it might be a smart idea to keep away from a drunk Dylan,” I nodded in understanding.  “And Ben has an X-box, so…here I am!”

“Yeah, here you are…” I trailed off awkwardly, not really knowing what to do next.

All of a sudden a game controller came flying toward me, and I fumbled to catch it.

I looked up at Matt confused as he scooted over and patted the bed next to him.  “You chose the game” he grinned.

I turned away to hide the small traitorous smile that was creeping onto my lips, as I looked for the particular video game I wanted to play.

I found it and returned to the TV with a smug expression as I put the game in and jumped on the bed.

Matt chuckled next to me “Mario Kart, huh?”

“Yep, got a problem with that?”

“Not at all, let’s race!”

Ten minutes later, I had won my third race against Matt, and we were gearing up for race number 4.  As Matt was choosing his character, a memory suddenly flashed through my mind and I busted out in laughter.

Matt looked over at me like I was a lunatic, “Uh…what’s so funny?”

"Remember the last time we did this?" I replied between breaths of laughter.

Realization suddenly dawned on him and he let out a small laugh of his own.  "Yeah 'LET ME LOSE MATTY! LET ME LOSE!" he mocked in a high pitched childish girly voice.

You see, when Matt, Ben, and I were kids, we would always play Mario Kart after school, and I would always have the suspicion that Matt let me win because he'd always beat Ben and Ben would always beat me.

One day Matt and I got into an argument because I knew he'd always let me win but he wouldn't admit it.

"Hey I was just being a gentleman" he winked.

When he did that a weird surge of…something went through me, and I had to break eye contact before he noticed my change in demeanor.

"Yeah, well…I bet I can beat you now.  Give me all you got, no holding back. Throw that gentleman crap out the window for this race okay?" I nudged his shoulder with mine and grabbed the controller.

"You're on" he nudged me back, and we raced.

After rounding the third bend, I was losing pretty badly to Matt.  Needless to say my suspicions were correct all this time, and he was really a Mario Kart pro.

All of a sudden an idea popped into my head, and I quickly lunged at Matt to steal his controller.

I laughed as I sat on top of it and won the next three laps while Matt protested and watched his Luigi lose.